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Learn all you need to know to become a good writer and editor

The Electronic Writing Course teaches you everything you need to know to become a good writer and editor. Polish your writing skills at your own pace by working through the ideas, lessons, tips, quizzes, exercises and workshops.

The Course teaches you how to:

  • Plan and organize effectively
  • Write clearly
  • Write concisely
  • Write correctly
  • Edit thoroughly

The Course teaches professional writing tips and tackles different writing tasks such as letters, reports, regulations, instructions, and emails. Based on training tools we designed for US Federal Government employees, the Course teaches you everything you need to know to become a good writer. At only $75 you can now sign up for a professional writing course to work at your own PC and at your own pace. Also, for our corporate clients we can design a course using employee writing samples and offer large discounts to train high numbers of staff.


Writing Course Demo

Teaches you how to write and edit like a professional editor.VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

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Writing Course Sections

We've organized the Course into nine major sections:

  1. Introduction
  2. Clear Thinking
  3. Concise Writing
  1. Clear Writing
  2. Correct Writing
  3. Editing Skills
  1. Writing Tips
  2. Writing Tasks
  3. Workshops

1. Introduction

Here's the first Section - The Introduction. It includes Welcome to the Course, Using the Course, Writing in Plain Language and Plain Language Standards. It explains why you should write in clear and concise style. It also explains how you can use StyleWriter to back up the training in the Course and set standards to measure how your writing improves.

Writing Course Introduction

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2. Clear Thinking

This covers learning to write well by thinking through your writing task before you start. It teaches the essential ideas of thinking about your Aim, Audience, Content and Plan.

Writing Course - Clear Thinking

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3. Concise Writing

This concentrates on six poor habits that make writing too wordy. It teaches you to overcome these habits and to learn to write concisely.

It covers:

  • Sentence length
  • Passive verbs
  • Hidden verbs
  • Wordy phrases
  • Business Clichés
  • Overwriting

Remember, StyleWriter shows you where to cut words from your draft. You will soon find you can write concisely so your reader concentrates on your message and does not have to fight through the waffle and padding so common in writing.

Writing in a concise style
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4. Clear Writing Style

This part of the Course teaches you how to write clearly by using simple, everyday words and avoiding jargon and abstract writing.

It covers:

  • Complex words
  • Jargon
  • Signpost language
  • Abstract writing
  • Abbreviations and acronyms
  • Foreign Expressions
  • Legal words

5. Correct Writing

This Section is a crash course in proofreading and correct English usage. It points out the mistakes and pitfalls most often found in writing. By learning what specifically to look for when you read your draft, you'll soon become an expert proofreader.
It covers:

  • Correct spelling
  • Correct punctuation
  • Correct grammar
  • Correct word use
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6. Editing Skills

This Section draws together what you have learnt in the previous sections of the Writing Course. You'll work on exercises designed to cut, simplify and correct writing examples. By working through each example, you'll improve your proofreading and editing skills.

 

 

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7. Writing Tips

This Section contains a host of writing and editing advice. It explains some of the main ways professional editors turn average documents into high-quality ones.

"After four years working with plain English, I was surprised by the many new ideas and techniques the Electronic Writing Course taught me. It's like sitting down one to one with a professional writer and getting instant feedback. That packs a lot of learning power into a short time." - Tony Britten, Environmental Protection Agency

8. Writing Tasks

This Section looks at the key drafting and editing techniques to use when writing and editing different documents.

 

 

 

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9. Writing Workshops

The Writing Workshops show you how to edit whole documents – turning the theory you have studied on the Course into practical editing to transform style.

There's a wealth of material in the Course. We recommend you go through a section - taking between one and two hours each - and then take a break.

Most people can finish the Course in about 20 hours - although to teach the material in a classroom would take about a week.


Writing Course Demo

Teaches you how to write and edit like a professional editor.VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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"The Electronic Writing Course guarantees thousands of employees throughout the world received the same expert training." - Learning and Development Manager

 

"I was surprised by the many new ideas and techniques the Electronic Writing Course taught me. It's like sitting down one to one with a professional trainer and getting instant feedback. That packs a lot of learning power into a short time."
- Plain English Trainer

 

"We can use the Electronic Writing Course to train millions of federal government employees to write in clear, plain English." - Plain English Coordinator


 

 

 

"This Electronic Writing Course will make you a better and more productive writer. A report that took you two days to draft, you'll draft in a few hours. Why? Because you'll know the secrets to getting the key points through to the reader in a style they'll find clear and even interesting. If you have to draft documents, this Course will save you hours, but more importantly, it will save your readers hours of unnecessary tedium wading through the typical turgid documents produced by the thousands in every large organization." - Training Manager

 

"I suddenly realized half way through the Course how many faults had crept into my business writing style over the last 20 years. The Course shone like a beacon, highlighting the habits and showing simple techniques to transform the way I communicate. Now I just have to convince everyone in the corporation to go through this expert training." - Senior Vice President

 

 

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"The Electronic Writing Course is a software masterpiece on the way to write English properly." - Write Aid

 

"For years everyone in this government agency has written in a bureaucratic, dull, lifeless style. Long-winded and tedious reports filled the in-trays and we were drowning in a sea of paper. The Electronic Writing Course shows any agency how to transform its writing style into clear and readable prose. I cannot think of one writer in this agency who would not benefit from going through this training."
- Employee Development Manager

 

 

 

 

 

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General Requirements

  • 33 MB of hard-drive space
  • Internet access for activation

Supported Operating Systems

Hardware Requirements

  • 512 MB of available RAM
You can contact us by clicking here if you have any questions.

 

Video Demonstrations

Introducing StyleWriter

The world's largest style and usage checker makes you a professional copy-editor. VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

StyleWriter Smart-Spell

StyleWriter's revolutionary Smart-Spell™ technology finds errors missed by conventional spellcheckers. VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

StyleWriter Jargon Buster

Comprehensively checks any document for jargon. Banish corporate speak from writing.
VIEW DEMO
watch tutorial

Editing Sentences

Analyze wordy, complex and long sentences to improve clarity and style.
VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

Advanced Statistics

Revolutionary readability and style indexes accurately assess your writing.
VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

StyleWriter's Audience & Task

Advice and readability for different audiences and tasks. VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

StyleWriter's Graphs

Essential editing information displayed. See your writing style at a glance.
VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

StyleWriter's Writing Samples

Examples of StyleWriter editing different documents. VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

StyleWriter's Editing Speed

The quickest style checker available. Check 10,000 words in 12 seconds.
VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

Writing Course Introduction

Teaches you how to write and edit like a professional editor. VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

House Style Introduction

Using StyleWriter to check your organization's house style preferences.
VIEW DEMO watch tutorial

Testimonials

"The Electronic Writing Course guarantees thousands of employees throughout the world received the same expert training."
- Learning and Development Manager

"I was surprised by the many new ideas and techniques the Electronic Writing Course taught me. It's like sitting down one to one with a professional trainer and getting instant feedback. That packs a lot of learning power into a short time."
- Plain English Trainer

"This Course will make you a better and more productive writer. A report that took you two days to draft, you'll draft in a few hours. Why? Because you'll know the secrets to getting the key points through to the reader in a style they'll find clear and even interesting."
- Training Manager

"If you have to draft documents, this Course will save you hours, but more importantly, it will save your readers hours of unnecessary tedium wading through the typical turgid documents produced by the thousands in every large organization."
- Training Manager

"We can use the Electronic Writing Course to train millions of federal government employees to write in clear, plain English."
- Plain English Coordinator

"For years everyone in this government agency has written in a bureaucratic, dull, lifeless style. Long-winded and tedious reports filled the in-trays and we were drowning in a sea of paper. This Course shows any agency how to transform its writing style into clear and readable prose. I cannot think of one writer in this agency who would not benefit from going through this training."
- Employee Development Manager